1. Technical Field
This invention relates to electronic commerce, and more particularly to an electronic shopping basket implemented through an e-commerce website for business-to-business transaction environments.
2. Background Information
Consumers are growing increasingly comfortable with the concept of shopping and purchasing goods and services on-line, i.e., over the Internet, with many well-known websites displaying various offerings ranging from books and toys to music and countless other consumer products. These consumer-oriented sites generally conduct their sales using similar e-commerce transactional models. Typically, on-line shoppers select products for purchase by depositing them in an electronic (i.e., virtual) shopping cart that is associated with their account information. This cart and its contents are retained for a predetermined time, i.e., about 30-days, in the event an order is not submitted when the cart is initially filled. Once a shopping cart is submitted as an order, it is generally no longer available to the account that created it. Only one active shopping cart is generally allowed per account and only one account is allowed per registered user. Consequently, registered users must operate in a linear shopping process and all business must be conducted and completed, e.g., order submitted, by the same person before other shopping may be undertaken. This arrangement is satisfactory for the common retail or business-to-consumer e-commerce model where one person is responsible for product specification, purchase authorization, and buying.
Unfortunately, this single shopping agent practice is rare in the business world, i.e., in business-to-business transactions. A more common commercial scenario involves two or more individuals acting in a checks-and-balances system. For example, an engineer or maintenance specialist specifies the products based on functional needs or previous product experience and submits this list via a material requisition or request to purchase to their supervisor for approval. The approved requisition is then submitted to a purchasing authority, e.g., buyer, for transmission as a purchase order. After the goods are delivered, an individual will compare the packing list and physical items with the requisitioned items of the purchase order and notify purchasing that the invoice is approved for payment or that there is a problem with the order.
In addition, permitting customers to transact business with a supplier directly over the Internet tends to threaten most established organizations currently in the distribution channel (such as distributors and/or other sales organizations) of corporate purchasing due to a sense of loss of control, i.e., a fear that these organizations will be bypassed.
Thus, a need exists for a shopping model that is more adaptable to the aforementioned business-to-business purchasing cycle and addresses the aforementioned drawbacks.